by Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY Sports

More than a Final Four spot is at stake tonight when Wichita State meets Ohio State in the NCAA men's basketball tournament West Region final.

Shockers head coach Gregg Marshall is looking an at opportunity to add $136,000 in bonus money for a win in this one game. Ohio State coach Thad Matta and athletics director Gene Smith also have bonuses on the line, although those possible rewards combine to total less than what is available for Marshall.

Marshall's contract calls for him to receive a $36,000 bonus for each game his team plays in the tournament. Plus, if the Shockers win today, he'll get an additional $100,000 for leading the team to the Final Four.

That would run his team on-court-performance bonus total for the season to $380,000 â?? a tidy sum, especially given that his compensation for this season from the university will total $1.15 million (including the signing bonus he received when his contract was amended last July and deferred income that vests each year).

If Wichita State wins the national championship, Marshall would end up with $616,000 in team on-court-performance bonuses.

On the Ohio State side, Matta gets an additional $20,000 for making the Final Four â?? atop the $100,000 in bonuses he already has earned. Matta also has secured a one-year contract extension worth at least $2.567 million, something he did when the Buckeyes won the Big Ten Conference tournament. (If he hadn't won the conference tournament, he would have triggered the extension when the team advanced to the NCAA tournament round of eight. He can add only one year to his contract in any one season.).

But don't fret for Matta that he is getting less bonus money this season than Marshall is; Matta is making more than $3.1 million this season, nearly triple what Marshall is getting.

As for Ohio State AD Smith, if the Buckeyes reach the Final Four today, he gets $61,540 -- an amount equal to four weeks of his $800,000 salary -- subject to him being limited to $100,000 per year for a variety of possible achievements by teams and individual-sport participants.

If Ohio State wins the national championship, Matta will add another $100,000 and Smith another $30,770 (an amount equal to two weeks of his salary).